GLUBB, John Bagot, Sir [called 'Glubb Pasha']. The Story of the Arab Legion. [Triptree, Essex: Anchor Press] 1980.
8vo. Original full brown calf, Arab Legion device in gilt on upper panel, spine with raised bands and silver-stamped lettering-pieces, all edges gilt, slip-case, map endpapers after Farid Azar; pp. 371; title with Arab Legion device, frontispiece and 24 plates printed in sepia with illustrations recto-and-verso, after Frank Hurley et al., 5 full-page maps in the text; binding minimally scuffed; otherwise a very good copy with a remarkable provenance.
First limited edition to commemorate 'the Fiftieth Anniversary of the year in which the author first entered the service of the Government of Trans-Jordan', one of 100 copies produced and signed by Glub Pasha, the rarest of all editions. The soldier and Arabist Sir John Glubb (1897-1986) was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1915 and served in France during World War I, before being posted to Mesopotamia in 1920, which 'was the beginning of his connection with the Arabs, for whom he formed an instant sympathy, so much so that in 1926 he left the army to join the British administration in Iraq' (ODNB). Following his success in stopping raids in southern Iraq, in 1930 Glubb 'was invited to join the Arab Legion in Transjordan, with a similar mission. This he accomplished within three years, raising a force of Bedouin camel police, which became famous as the desert patrol. In 1939 Amir Abdullah appointed him to command the Arab Legion as feriq (lieutenant-general) […] Glubb was probably the first man to succeed in turning the Bedouin into disciplined soldiers. Previously they had been considered untameable. Glubb was, however, careful to train his Bedouin in accordance with their age-old customs. In 1941 he led them alongside the British army in Syria and Iraq, and was appointed to the DSO. His contribution to the capture of Baghdad in 1941 and the subsequent capture of the desert fortress of Palmyra in Syria was decisive, for it denied the eastern flank of the Middle East to Hitler. Later he formed a complete mechanized brigade, almost entirely Bedouin. He was now known as Glubb Pasha' (ODNB). The Story of the Arab Legion recounts the development of the Legion under Glubb and its growth into a formidable and sophisticated modern force, demonstrated by the juxtaposition of two photographs on one plate; the upper shows a camel-borne Arab Legion unit in 1935 and the lower an Arab Legion armoured car unit in 1945. - In the new preface Glubb praises the soldiers serving under him 'Throughout the seventeen years during which I commanded the Arab Legion from 1939 to 1956 - years passed in almost continuous wars - I cannot recall a single case of desertion or a single instance of theft, misconduct or civil offences' (p. 6).
Provenance: This is number 5 of the very limited print run and was presented to Sayyid Fahr bin Taimur Al Said, member of the Omani ruling family and Deputy Prime Minister for Defence Affairs from 1977 to 1996, during the reign of his nephew, Sultan Qaboos bin Said 'on the occasion of Oman's tenth national day' (ink inscription to the signed limitation page).
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